Conversations @ SFAI: Collection vs. Capture August 26, 7PM

SFAI and SWAIA are pleased to present the next Conversations @ SFAI. We ask, how do Native artists and collectors navigate the ethical quandaries around the production and collection of heritage based objects? Can collecting be considered predatory in nature? How does meaning and valuation change when making work for a market that sometimes fetishizes the cultural significance of objects?

Dallin was raised on the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in Western New York, home of the Seneca Nation of Indians. In addition to being an award-winning artist, international performer and lecturer, Dallin has a Juris Doctorate from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at ASU. Dallin’s work is in several public and private collections worldwide including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. He does this with the support of his wife, Naomi Maybee-an attorney, beadworker, and dancer.

Devorah Romanek is a museum curator, anthropologist and art historian with a special interest in the nexus between those two disciplines. Currently she is Curator of Exhibits at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, having worked at numerous museums’s and cultural heritage institutions in Germany, the United Kingdom and the U.S., including serving as Curator of North American collections at the British Museum, and as Collections Manager at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Heye Center.

Cannupa Hanska Luger was born in North Dakota (1979) on the Standing Rock Reservation. His genetics are derived from Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota, Austrian, and Norwegian. He graduated with honors from The Institute of American Indian Arts in 2011 with a BFA focusing in studio ceramics. Cannupa Hanska is currently creating socially conscious work balanced with a high standard of craftsmanship and his sculpture has been added to various museum collections and shown in exhibitions worldwide. Cannupa Hanska is represented by Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, NM.

This conversation coincides with SFAI’s hosting of SWAIA Residency Fellows, the Rasmuson Foundation Fellow, and Canada Council for the Arts Fellows, all residency partnerships that directly support Native North American Artists.

SFAI is a cultural organization that seeks to address a critical question. How can SFAI cultivate creative practices (from fine art to design to urban planning and beyond), engage with diverse communities and address the most pressing social issues of our time?